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After South Africa’s battle with the record-breaking drought of 2015, Prof Andries Jordaan from our Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa(DiMTEC) saw room for improvement in dealing with this kind of disaster.
Drought impact
Commercial farmers who are usually net exporters of food crops and communal farmers who own the bulk of the country’s livestock, were all hit hard in 2015. Most of the latter had no resources to spare as the drought progressed. The concern about the drought’s impact on the country’s food production and availability resulted in a joint goal of preventing food scarcity during future droughts.
Prof Jordaan’s visit to the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the US, several years ago prepared him to better equip communities in South Africa to deal with drought situations. “I recognised that in spite of the impact DiMTEC has been able to make on disaster preparedness, a gap remained in disaster response in South Africa.”
Sharing knowledge
In August this year Prof Jordaan again visited the NDMC. This time he requested a few key players in South Africa’s agriculture and disaster response communities to join him. With him were Janse Rabie, head of Natural Resources at AgriSA, a nonprofit organisation that functions as an interface between the government and about 28 000 South Africa farmers, and Moses Musiwale Khangale, director of Fire Services for the South African Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
The South African delegation met with and learnt from climatologists, geospatial technologists, and outreach and planning analysts.
Roads and entrance closed due to roadworks
2017-12-04
UFS University Estates has advised those visiting the Bloemfontein Campus to be aware of the fact that some roads will be closed for resealing as part of the 2017 road maintenance project. Visible signage and flagmen will be placed at strategic places to alert the UFS community. As the UFS, we apologise for any inconvenience caused in this regard. UFS staff, students, and visitors are requested to make use of alternative routes and entrances to the campus on scheduled dates.
Dates of closing of roads and entrances:
Week 27 November–2 December 2017
• Senate Street
• Dekaan Street
• Akademie Avenue
• Chancellor’s Road
Week 4 December–8 December 2017
• Furstenberg Road (gate closed completely)
• Sports Avenue
• Faculty Road
• Graduandi Avenue
• Rector’s Road
• Shimla Avenue
Week 11 December–15 December 2017
• Will follow later when information has been received from the contractor.